Social & Behavior Change Officer (health/immunization), NO-2, Mbabane, Eswatini, Temporal Appointment, (Open to Swazi Nationals only) 6 months

Contract

This is a NO-2 contract. This kind of contract is known as National Professional Officers. It is normally only for nationals. It's a staff contract. More about NO-2 contracts.

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, Health

How can you make a difference?

Background and Justification

The COVID-19 pandemic presented opportunities for UNICEF to renew its focus on the continuum of health care, education and protection for children and their mothers, especially children who have not received essential basic services, including vaccinations (the zero-dose children community) and birth registration. UNICEF is adopting transformative approaches that target the barriers to access and use of services and the underlying power dynamics within families. Children and their families who are deprived of key basic social services such as immunization frequently face multiple vulnerabilities and obstacles, and prevailing gender norms and inequalities often hinder their ability to access a wide range of services.

To improve the situation of children in Eswatini including immunization coverage, neonatal mortality, stunting levels, access to universal Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH), it is necessary to understand and address the many ways in which inequality and gender interact with additional socioeconomic, geographic, and cultural factors to influence access, uptake and sustainable delivery of essential services, in the broader context of systems strengthening.

This will be also achieved through support to build the national capacity at all levels on implementation of appropriate policies, strategic plans and budgets; provision of quality services; strengthening of management information systems (MIS) and behavioural changes to ensure continuum of care, including during emergencies. Therefore, Social & Behaviour Change (SBC) is a key change strategy to address social norms and cultural barriers preventing the realization of children rights. SBC in UNICEF is a cross-cutting programme strategy that analyses and addresses the cognitive, social and structural determinants of individual practices and societal changes in both development and humanitarian contexts. Therefore, UNICEF will recruit an SBC Officer to plan, implement and monitor the SBC activities for the Country Office with government and implementing partners. Special focus will be on maximizing routine immunization services, COVID-19 prevention and HPV vaccination as well as WASH to address inequality and gender-related concerns that might affect uptake of essential services for different target population groups including during emergency.

Purpose of the assignment

Under the supervision of the Chief of Child Survival and Development, the SBC Officer will provide technical and operational support to the Country Office by administering, implementing, monitoring and/or evaluating a variety of SBC/Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE) initiatives and activities to promote gender-inclusive community-centred, data-driven approaches with a focus on health and immunization (including COVID-19, HPV).

Major Duties and Responsibilities

Within the delegated authority and under the given organizational set-up, the incumbent may be assigned the primarily, shared, or contributory responsibilities for all or part of the following areas of major duties and key end-results.

1. Support to strategy design and development of SBC/RCCE activities
   • Collect, synthesize, draft and/or organize materials and related documentations for evidence-based SBC strategies and plans (as a component of the CO and United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework) to ensure optimum impact, scale and sustainability of achievements/results.
   • Assess, select and/or recommend appropriate information and materials for SBC initiatives verifying accuracy and quality for dissemination.
   • Monitor and assess the impact of SBC strategies and activities on the CO and UNICEF goals to achieve measurable behavioral and social change resulting in the improvement of children’s rights and wellbeing. Submit qualitative report/synthesis of results for development planning and improvement.
2. Support to the implementation of SBC activities
   • Collaborate and/or consult with internal and external partners to provide operational and technical support to research, development, and production of evidence-based strategies and test, produce and use quality SBC materials, organize events and activities to maximize community engagement and participation, and maximum outreach and impact for communities.
   • Provide technical, administrative, and logistical support and develop background materials for implementation of SBC strategies and activities by UNICEF and partners and recommend operational strategies, approaches, plans, methods and procedures to ensure community engagement and participation, and optimum outreach and impact.
   • Assess and recommend potential contacts, networks, resources and tools to support maximum impact and outreach of SBC initiatives.
   • Follow up and monitor the production of SBC materials to ensure technical quality, consistency and relevancy of communications materials that are developed, produced and disseminated to target audience (e.g., individuals, communities, government officials, partners, media etc.).
   • Collect, assess and organize information for budget planning and management of programme funds and prepare documentations and related materials for financial planning for SBC initiatives. Monitor/track the use of resources as planned and verify compliance with organizational guidelines, rules and regulations and standards of ethics and transparency.
   • Identify, disseminate, and adopt best practices and innovative approaches and technology in SBC, integrate them in programme approaches and support SBC and sectoral teams in implementing them.
3. Advocacy, networking and partnership building
   • Build and maintain partnerships through networking and proactive collaboration with national and international civil society organizations, community groups, leaders and other critical partners in the community and civil society to reinforce cooperation through engagement, empowerment and self-determination and to pursue opportunities for greater advocacy to promote UNICEF mission and goals for child rights, social equity and inclusiveness.
   • Collaborate with internal global/regional communication partners to harmonize, link and/or coordinate messaging to enhance SBC outreach and contribution to programmatic outcomes.
4. Innovation, knowledge management and capacity building
   • Institutionalize/share best practices and knowledge products with global/local partners and stakeholders to build capacity of practitioners/users and disseminate products to key audiences including partners and donors.
   • Support the organization, administration and implementation of capacity building initiatives, including partnerships with training and academic institutions, to enhance the competencies of clients/stakeholders/partners across programme sectors in SBC planning, implementation and evaluation in support of programmes/projects.

KEY END-RESULTS

The efficient and effective technical, administrative and operational support provided to the development and implementation of SBC, public advocacy initiatives and products directly impact on the ability of UNICEF to promote changes in behaviors, social attitudes, beliefs and actions by, individuals, communities and societies on children’s rights. This further contributes to enhancing the ability of UNICEF to fulfill its mission to achieve sustainable, locally owned and concrete results in improving the survival, development and wellbeing of children in the country.

QUALIFICATION AND COMPETENCIES

Education:

• A university degree (Bachelor’s or higher) in social and behavioral science, including sociology, anthropology, communication studies/communication for development, public health (health promotion), psychology and/or related field is required.

Experience:

• A minimum of two years of professional experience in one or more of the following areas is required social development programme planning, communication for development or social and behaviour change, public advocacy or another related area.
• Relevant experience in a UN system agency or organization is considered as an asset.

• Specialized training/experience in Social and Behaviour Change highly desirable.

  Language Proficiency

• Fluency in English and SiSwati is required.

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

(1) Builds and maintains partnerships (2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness (3) Drive to achieve results for impact (4) Innovates and embraces change (5) Manages ambiguity and complexity (6) Thinks and acts strategically (7) Works collaboratively with others.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks:

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance. Appointments are also subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Government employees that are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

UNICEF only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU) / United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed at: http://www.whed.net